MARK HULLINGER – LEFT KNEE HISTORY
PATELLA TENDONITIS – Age 15 to Present –
“SINDING-LARSEN-JOHANSSON
SYNDROME” – JUMPER’S KNEE
This
was the first of the knee problems. The
main cause was a lot of activity, jumping excessively, and tight muscles. This is a chronic condition and has no cure
except for “staying off it”. Surgery is
not an option and NSAID shots only provide temporary relief, the only fix is
truly staying off it for a long time.
This becomes worse than an ACL replacement or cartilage damage because
there is no fix other than resting and stretching excessively. For an active person, 6 months to 2 years of
inactivity usually won’t reverse this condition. It’s mainly due to over-activity than
genetics. Fast twitch fibers due to
genetics can lead to inherently tight muscles that need more stretching than
normal.
MORE on this condition.
SURGERY #1 – 03/??/1995 – Dr. Hawkes –
Football…“Terrible Triad”
“Terrible
Triad” – ACL, MCL, Lateral or Medial Meniscus tear. Later discovered to be a malpractice.
Thermal
Energy Laser used to “shrink” Collagenous Tissue and tighten ACL but in fact it
made it brittle and more prone to injury.
Already had ongoing treatment for Patellar Tendonitis – “Jumper’s Knee”
with some NSAID shots and a summer cast while being recruited to play
football. Broken foot later occurred as
an in-direct result of this complication during a state qualifying track
meet. The causes were due to atrophy,
compensation, and extreme muscle exertion.
The cuneiform bone in my left foot basically snapped due to muscle
exertion.
MORE on the amazing and
peculiar HISTORY on Dr. Hawkes.
SURGERY #2 – 02/10/1998 – Dr. Kimball –
Clean-Up after 2 Year Voluntary Religious Service
Discovered 1st Surgery was a Mal-Practice.
Thermal
Energy Laser “turned ACL into brittle candy cane” but still passed strength and
Laxity tests so ACL wasn’t replaced.
MORE
at Dr. Kimball’s Website for an
explanation on specific surgeries.
SURGERY #3 – 02/10/2000 – Dr. Kimball -
Playing Basketball…“Terrible Triad”
“Terrible
Triad” – ACL, MCL, Lateral and Medial Meniscus tear. This one popped and swelled like a typical
“triad.” Brittle ACL was more easily
snapped due to nature of fall. There
were 3 seconds left on the clock and we were ahead by 30 when I pulled down a
rebound against a taller guy. This guy
later bragged about what he’d done to impress his future fiancé’ who was in my
church ward. Crutches and a backpack in
February snow during junior year of engineering school.
PICTURES OF
THE SURGERY and brief explanations.
SURGERY #4 – 11/05/2002 – Dr. Kimball -
Playing Basketball.
Discovered
“clicking”, “giving-out”, and “shifting” after mild play at the church
gym. To reduce future arthritis and
eliminate uncomfortable grinding, surgery was decidedly the healthy thing to
do. I had to at least attempt a new
beginning with the best knee possible.
No more basketball…even with a brace.
This one involved flying from
PICTURES OF
THE SURGERY and brief explanations.
SURGERY #5 – 01/20/2005 – Dr. Kimball –
Skiing.
Landed
hard on a routine jump. It was an impact
landing rather than a twisting injury.
This created a dime-sized crater in my articulating cartilage which was
more painful than the ACL stuff. A lot
of people tell me to switch to snowboarding, but this isn’t the solution, as it
may guard against twisting, it can’t guard against impact injuries. No more skiing or snowboarding…Period…unless
I want to go straight down the hill and not jump or take moguls. I’d rather share have my tonsils removed with
a rusty spoon than not hit any jumps while skiing. So I’ve decided to retire and save my money
and dignity.
PICTURES OF
THE SURGERY and brief explanations.
HAMSTRING RUPTURE – 09/27/2005 – Dr. Zuo –
Softball Hamstring Tear from 2003
I
was chasing down a fly ball and my hamstring locked up on me. It wasn’t a complete severance but an awesome
tear that left scar tissue for years.
This hamstring turned out to be more damaging and longer lasting than
any other knee injury. This caused
muscle imbalances in my left side and since I have been limping for so long
now, my left hip joint became extremely tight.
My left psoas and piriformis muscles also became extremely tight causing
leg sciatica later on. Although not
related to the hamstring injury, Dr. Zuo’s assistant took x-rays of my knees to
see the amount of cartilage I had left.
I took a picture of those x-rays and here they are. Basically, after all of the trauma I’ve been
through, my cartilage was still decent for a 29 year old male.
KNEE
X-RAYS OF THE VISIT and brief
explanations.
SURGERY #6 – 12/07/2006 – Dr. Kimball –
Parked Motorcycle Fell and Buckled Left Knee
The
surgeries mentioned before were by all criterion “freak accidents” but this one
was truly a lottery pick. It turns out
that standing next to a motorcycle is more dangerous than riding one. My left knee buckled and trapped me almost
dangling on a little hill. In this
awkward position, normal human strength couldn’t get me out of it without doing
further damage (and I can bench press my motorcycle). So I had to wait for my buddy to pull it off
me after being pinned and twisted for a few minutes. The left knee buckling probably aggravated
the existing injuries or caused additional damage. Out of 100 knee bends, around 90 of them
would click or grind erratically. It
usually happens at the 45º degree mark which points to a “dangling chad” on the
meniscus.
KNEE X-RAYS
OF THE VISIT and brief explanations.
PICTURES OF
THE SURGERY and brief explanations.
During
the 2005 surgery, a pick chondroplasty (microfracture) was performed on the
lateral femoral cartilage crater. This
surgery showed that the crater has filled in and been polished over. Awesome.
This
was the most minor and best of all six surgeries so far. The pain threshold only went to 2 or 3 on a
scale of 10. The incisions didn’t throb
and there was no post-op surgery aching.
I guess having damaged nerves and numbness over the years helped dampen
the pain. I had the luxury of resting,
icing, compressing, elevating, and exercising enough so the recovery was very
quick. Imagine that, RICE is the best
thing for an injury. Like arthroscopic
surgery in the NFL, I was jogging in a week, but it took an extreme amount of
discipline and rest.
This
is the MIRACLE. The diagnosis is that
I’ve got a relatively healthy knee and with only an average chance of
developing arthritis. Muscle rehab in this
case has been absolutely crucial and there are some days I even forget that
I’ve had knee injuries.
SURGERY #7 – 11/20/2009 – Dr. Kimball – Knee
Buckled Sideways While at the Sand Dunes
Well
the MIRACLE of nearly 2 years of almost total knee health ended abruptly with
this mishap. It was bad weather at the
Little Sahara Sand Dunes and I was fatigued from lack of adequate sleep. I’ve done this combination many times although
I don’t think anyone else has ever ridden motorcycles while tired or in the cold. I’d been up this hill many times already and
this time I hit a dry patch and started to over wheelie. This happens a lot and is one of the main
reasons for enjoying the dunes so much.
Since I was using my knobby tire, I was sitting far back on the seat to
get my full weight on the back for better traction. This added with the combination of two winter
coats, thick winter gloves, fatigue, slow reaction times, and general bad luck
caused me to over wheelie and push the bike forward. Instead of falling down backwards, I fell
down forward in “child’s pose” buckling both knees to the side. Only my left knee severely popped executing
the typical trial of ACL, MCL, and cartilage.
My right knee sustained a partial non-surgical MCL tear. I knew what exactly what ligaments and
cartilage I damaged immediately as well as the extent. This was my worst one so far. My fans and crew members didn’t see this
happen and would eventually come and get me, but I laid there for about 15
minutes trying to get situated. I
finally power-cleaned my bike up using one leg as a vertical base and “saddle
swinged” my leg over the bike and coasted it down and eventually back to
camp. This was extremely painful and
took a unique skill set of many thousands of times of “learning how to get off
the hill” when you don’t make it. The
femoral articulating cartilage that had miraculously glazed over now had a pit
the size of a penny which required an extensive pick chondroplasty
(microfracture). Floating bone fragments
that shattered off the femur were also removed.
The hurtful part of all of this is that I was wearing my “anti-ACL” knee
brace; the same one used by the NCAA & the NFL (DonJoy). I can only surmise that it wasn’t on tight
and migrated with the extra layer of socks. Or it could have been much worse and I got off
pretty lucky. The trip home was horrible with car shuttling and not being able
to walk or hop. Had I not had help, I
was planning on crawling in the snow to my door…luckily this was not the
case. This surgery required a pick
chondroplasty (microfracture), ACL revision (this means a Cadaver graft from an
Achilles Tendon donor), and bone fragment removal. One month on crutches and 9
months till “full” recovery.
PICTURES OF
THE SURGERY and brief explanations.
CONCLUSION
Well
there is no conclusion, since age 17 (with the exception of a two year
religious sabbatical) I’ve spent every other Birthday, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas somewhat injured (not a big deal).
I’ve already eliminated Football, Basketball, Track, Skiing,
Snowboarding, and Tire Dragging for good…so I hate to guess which sport will be
next. So far riding a motorcycle was
safest sport I’ve ever done until surgery #7 happened. (I hope I don’t end up a golfer). So now I use a shot-gun blast approach and
hit my ailments with every type of workout and stretch known to mankind. I stretch for hours a week and am now logging
10+ years of physical therapy. You know
you’re in the ACL club when every workout is dedicated to preserving and
maintaining your million dollar knee.
AND AS ALWAYS…EACH INJURY IS THE LAST!
“Scars Heal…Glory Fades. And we’re all left with the memories
made. Pain hurts, but only for a
minute. Yeah, life is short so go on and
live it. ‘Cause the Chicks Dig It.”
Here are Some Funny Pix of the
Excruciating Agony
